Degradation of Chloridazon in an aqueous environment using TiO2/Ag as a synthesized nano photocatalyst using central composite design

Subject Areas : Journal of Nanoanalysis

Maysam  Abdolkarimi ¹ (Department of Chemical Engineering, Tafresh University, Tafresh, Iran.)
Fariba  Soleimani ² (Department of chemistry, Isfahan, Islamic Azad University)
Aref  Shokri ³ (Department of chemistry, Faculty of Science, Payamenoor University, Tehran, Iran.)

Received: 2021-06-25 Accepted : 2022-03-30 Published : 2022-04-01

Keywords: Photocatalytic Degradation, Batch photo reactor, Chloridazon, TiO2/Ag nano photocatalyst, Central Composite Design (CCD),

Abstract :

In this study, TiO2/Ag nano photocatalyst was synthesized by sol-gel method and used for degradation of Chloridazon (CLZ) in aqueous media. The prepared catalyst was characterized using powder X-ray diffractometry (XRD), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) techniques. The Crystallite size of pure TiO2 and Ag/TiO2 nanoparticles was 20 and 60 nm, respectively. The Central Composite Design (CCD) was employed for experimental design and statistical analysis of independent operational parameters. According to the results of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) plots of Design-Expert software, the optimal conditions for each critical variable were as the follows: time at 113 min, pH at 6.8, initial concentration of CLZ at 40 mg/l, and catalyst concentration at 0.83gr/l. The maximum effectiveness in the experimental and predicted CLZ removal was 94.2 and 93.5%, respectively. The outcomes of Analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated high determination coefficient quantities (R2 = 0.9997, Predicted R2=0.9989, and Adjusted R2=0.9994) which validated the reliability of the second-order regression model.